In today’s news that’s not surprising: 50 Shades Darker is a LOT shorter in UAE cinemas than it is worldwide.

The latest film in the critically-panned 50 Shades series hit UAE cinemas this weekend, but if you’re a fan, heads up, it’s 18 minutes shorter here than it is in the US.

So yes, just under 20 minutes has been censored from the film drawn from the best-selling book series. However, yes, this is far from surprising.

In other countries, the film’s run time is 1 hour and 58 minutes – but here in the UAE it’s just 1 hour and 40 minutes (to be honest, we expected that even more of it would have been cut, which means there’s clearly a lot of banal dialogue in there).

But, don’t worry too much, you’re not missing much: the 50 Shades of Grey sequel has been described as narratively “limp” by Rotten Tomatoes, and the site has given it an underwhelming 9 per cent rating.

AN ALTERNATIVE?

We say you go see the excellent, 99 per cent Rotten Tomatoes rated Get Out by Jordan Peele. The creepy thriller/social critique is one of the most genre-bending films we’ve seen in years, and we imagine it’s a lot more titillating than any 50 Shades film will ever be.

Get Out, one of the best horror films we’ve seen in yonks…

Plus, it’s 1 hour and 44 minutes in US cinemas, and also 1 hour and 44 minutes in UAE cinemas. In fact, we saw it over the weekend and estimate that only about 20 seconds has been cut, and that’s far more palatable than missing nearly half-an-hour of a movie.

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